It is common practice for physicians to prescribe medications in pills, tablets, capsules and other solid oral dosage forms from a pharmacy. In writing out such prescriptions, the physicians state that a dose, e.g. pill or pills, must be taken at specific time intervals, for example, two pills every six hours. Such dose and time intervals are usually typed onto a label attached to the medicine container, usually an opaque or semi-opaque cylindrical plastic container. In many cases, such labeling is unsatisfactory because the labels cannot be read by the patient, the information thereon may become smeared or the label detached. In addition, patients with severe arthritis or similar maladies of the hands often find it troublesome, if not impossible, to open the standard child-proof or child-resistant medicine container.
The memory of patients is not always reliable and there are many circumstances under which the patient forgets when the last dose was taken and is thus uncertain when to take the next dose. Such problems make it difficult for the normal person, as a patient, to determine the dosage regimen and nearly impossible for persons visually impaired, blind, arthritic with strength or dexterity problems or those mentally impaired in any way to properly follow the prescription instructions.
Efforts to solve this general problem of non-compliance have had varying degrees of success. Thus, Buckley, U.S. Pat. No. 4,208,983, discloses a means to identify a dosage regimen by indicia on a cap on a container of medicine or on a label fixed to the outer surface of a container. Buckley discloses a device comprised of at least two portions; one of which has a relief symbol representing a tablet and a plurality of protrusions extending therefrom which may be selectively removed to leave the specific number of protrusions representing the specified dosage, i.e. three protrusions means three tablets; the second portion of which has a relief symbol representing time and a plurality of protrusions extending therefrom which may be selectively removed to leave the specific number of protrusions to represent the time cycle of the dosage, thus the prescription is duplicated by indicia on the cap. There is nothing to indicate to the patient if he or she has taken a previous dose. Gayle, U.S. Pat. No. 3,227,127 discloses a pill dispenser that provides for an automatic recording or registering of the fact that the patient has taken a pill at the prescribed interval. The pill dispenser and indicator of Gayle comprise a relatively small pocket size dispenser containing a predetermined number of pills to be used over a prescribed period of time. The dispenser has a separate compartment for each pill and includes a disc base and a disc cover. The pill containing compartments are spaced about the perimeter of the disc base. The cover has an access opening for removing one pill at a time. Contained within the disc base and cover is an indicating dial having calibrated markings, a portion of which is visible through the cover of the dispenser. This dial is engaged with the base of the dispenser whereby rotation of the cover relative to the base, a step necessary to remove a pill, will advance the dial with respect to a reference means on the cover. Thus, whenever a pill is removed from the dispenser the indicating dial is automatically advanced, and consequently, the patient need not rely on memory. Such a device relies on visual indicia to remind the patient, however, such indicia are not suitable for blind or sight impaired patients.
Zoltan, U.S. Pat. No. 4,419,016, discloses a compliance aid device which enables users to readily ascertain the time at which they took a previous dose of medication. This is achieved through the provision of a time keeping device incorporated into typical containers for medicinal products without the need for complicated container construction or complex mechanical parts or expensive electronic circuitry. The time keeping device displays the time and date when the container was last opened by the patient user and continues to display them after closing of the container. The device can also be provided with settable alarms to visually or audibly alert the patient as to when the next dose is to be taken. The Zoltan device can be provided as a separate element or as part of the cap or cover of the container and can be reused. This device depends upon electronics, is expensive and does not meet the needs of sight impaired and blind patients or certain deaf patients.
Babbitt, III, U.S. Pat. No. 3,766,882, provides a pill dispensing device in the shape of a cylindrical body of plastic having an open top with an outwardly projecting bead at the open top, and a scale in the form of a band including hourly designations which is applied about the cylindrical body beneath the bead. A cap rotates relative to the body of the cylinder. The cap has time indicia in the form of a line on the outside surface of its skirt. When the cap is turned after each time the medicine is taken by the patient, the time of the last dose is indicated and can serve as a memory aid for the patient. The Babbitt device is not suitable for persons with poor sight, does not provide aid in determining frequency of dosing and does not indicate when the next dose is to be taken.